Geminids 2010: visual data quicklook

Introduction

This page shows automated results of the Geminids 2010,
based on visual observations by volunteers astronomers collected through the report form of the International Meteor Organization (IMO).
The information on this page is generated automatically; for scientific use
please refer to manual analyses published in scientific journals (such as WGN).
Send your feedback regarding this page to Geert Barentsen.

Activity profile

The graph below shows the ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate), which is the number of meteors an observer would see under a very dark sky with the radiant of the shower in zenith.
ZHRmax = 127 based on 6801 Geminids reported in 743 intervals, assuming population index r = 2.0

Time (UTC)

Solarlon

nINT

nGEM

ZHR

Particle density

2010-12-04 21:03

252.458

1

1

28

±20

45 / 109·km3

2010-12-06 21:43

254.517

19

23

5

±1

8 / 109·km3

2010-12-07 22:41

255.573

14

26

21

±4

33 / 109·km3

2010-12-09 19:11

257.457

26

59

11

±1

18 / 109·km3

2010-12-10 15:32

258.318

22

70

11

±1

18 / 109·km3

2010-12-11 18:33

259.463

21

99

22

±2

35 / 109·km3

2010-12-12 09:38

260.102

43

203

22

±2

35 / 109·km3

2010-12-12 22:31

260.648

31

203

37

±3

59 / 109·km3

2010-12-13 00:13

260.720

23

219

42

±3

67 / 109·km3

2010-12-13 01:32

260.775

21

203

38

±3

61 / 109·km3

2010-12-13 03:10

260.845

21

217

44

±3

70 / 109·km3

2010-12-13 06:00

260.965

25

228

44

±3

70 / 109·km3

2010-12-13 15:30

261.367

33

200

39

±3

62 / 109·km3

2010-12-13 20:13

261.567

20

200

82

±6

131 / 109·km3

2010-12-13 21:15

261.611

40

422

94

±5

150 / 109·km3

2010-12-13 22:20

261.657

33

346

100

±5

159 / 109·km3

2010-12-13 23:23

261.701

16

205

108

±8

172 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 00:32

261.750

22

328

112

±6

178 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 01:24

261.787

26

392

104

±5

166 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 02:27

261.831

27

419

127

±6

202 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 03:22

261.870

21

308

101

±6

161 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 04:47

261.930

12

207

94

±7

150 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 07:17

262.036

13

207

102

±7

162 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 08:26

262.085

14

210

114

±8

182 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 09:47

262.142

13

205

94

±7

150 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 11:02

262.195

30

213

91

±6

145 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 14:31

262.343

9

228

77

±5

123 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 17:35

262.472

22

206

59

±4

94 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 18:45

262.522

24

202

104

±7

166 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 20:08

262.580

23

205

73

±5

116 / 109·km3

2010-12-14 22:03

262.662

22

201

51

±4

81 / 109·km3

2010-12-15 00:26

262.763

28

203

54

±4

86 / 109·km3

2010-12-15 05:02

262.957

28

143

34

±3

54 / 109·km3

The reported intervals are automatically added together into the bins shown above, based on the number of meteors and the distribution of the intervals. For each bin, the following parameters are computed:

Time is the averaged centre of the reported intervals in Universal Time (UTC);

Solarlon is the astronomical position of the earth relative to the sun at the above time (equinox J2000.0);

nINT is the number of reported intervals used;

nGEM is the number of Geminids observed in those intervals;

ZHR is the Zenithal Hourly Rate, defined as (1 + sum nGEM) / sum(Teff/C) where Teff is the effective observing time and C is the total correction coefficient for limiting magnitude, clouds and zenith correction 1/sin(hR);

Particle density is the approximate number of particles (meteoroids) causing meteors brighter than magnitude +6.5 per billion cubic kilometer (i.e., a cube with 1000 km edge length).
The ZHR depends on this density (which can be variable) and the velocity (which is roughly constant) of the meteoroid stream. For more information about the computation method, see the references at the bottom.

Observer statistics

Data has been received from 101 observers in 26 countries. Thank you for your efforts!